Holiday Inn Nottingham Review

Some hotel stays are destinations. Others simply need to make the following morning as easy as possible. Our stay at Holiday Inn Nottingham fell firmly into the second category, but that’s not a criticism. Quite the opposite. We needed somewhere comfortable for one night before the England Hockey Talent Academy Cup, one of the most important weekends in the junior hockey calendar, where our daughter would spend the weekend with her regional academy team.

Holiday Inn Nottingham wasn’t originally part of the plan. Our main accommodation for the weekend was already booked: a two-night stay at Roomzzz Nottingham through Citi Travel. The timing worked almost perfectly with the Citi Strata Elite’s annual $300 hotel credit, reducing a two-night stay costing $359.61 to an out-of-pocket cost of just $59.61.

At first we weren’t sure whether we’d travel to Nottingham on Friday morning or the night before. Once the tournament schedule became clearer and it looked increasingly likely that our daughter’s first match would be in the morning, we decided we didn’t want to rely on a two-hour-plus journey on the day itself. The last thing we wanted was transport delays adding unnecessary stress before one of the biggest weekends of her hockey career.

Adding Thursday night to the Roomzzz reservation would have meant paying the full cost of an additional night because we’d already extracted the full value of the Citi hotel credit. Instead, I looked at what was already available in my travel wallet. I had an IHG One Rewards Select Free Night Certificate, valid for hotels costing up to 40,000 points, that would expire only a few weeks later. Holiday Inn Nottingham wasn’t an exceptional redemption value on paper, but expiring certificates don’t improve with age. It was a sensible opportunity to use it while also trying a hotel that had quietly been on my list for some time.

In a way, I’d already “visited” the hotel.

The previous autumn, my daughter stayed here with her school hockey team. Knowing I have a habit of photographing every hotel room we stay in, she sent me a couple of WhatsApp photos complete with a laughing emoji. They weren’t really the kind of images I’d use in a review, but it was such a thoughtful thing to do that the property stayed in the back of my mind. This trip finally gave me an excuse to see it properly.

Holiday Inn Nottingham sits in the Castle Marina area, about a mile west of Nottingham city centre, with easy road access and ample parking. One unexpected advantage is what sits directly opposite the hotel. A large Sainsbury’s sits opposite alongside several other retail outlets. We used it to stock up on fruit and snacks before our daughter reported into tournament accommodation, but I could just as easily see it being useful for business travellers or anyone spending a weekend in the area.

Check-in was friendly and efficient. As an IHG Platinum Elite member, I chose the complimentary welcome drink rather than the bonus points. The voucher was handled well, with the restaurant simply removing the most expensive eligible drink from the bill without any discussion or awkwardness.

Interestingly, unlike a handful of other IHG properties where I’ve unexpectedly received both the welcome drink and the bonus points, Holiday Inn Nottingham followed the program rules exactly. It was one or the other, which is how the benefit is intended to work.

We weren’t looking for a night out in Nottingham. The following morning was what mattered, so an easy dinner in the hotel restaurant suited us perfectly.

The sirloin steak special was only £1 more than the standard rump steak on the regular menu, making it an easy decision. All three steaks came out the medium-rare we’d requested, and together with a couple of drinks it made for a relaxed start to the weekend before an early night.

The room was exactly what I’d hoped for from a recently refreshed Holiday Inn. It felt modern enough to avoid looking dated, was clean throughout and had everything we needed for a comfortable overnight stay.

This was a hotel whose primary job was delivering a good night’s sleep before an important day, and it did that without fuss.

As often happens when I’m traveling, I woke well before everyone else. This time it was around 4 a.m. Rather than risk disturbing anyone before an important day, I quietly dressed, grabbed my backpack and headed downstairs.

I settled at the table nearest the front window, connected to the hotel Wi-Fi and got a couple of productive hours of work done. Those quiet early morning hours have become some of my favorite time while traveling. There are no interruptions, no emails demanding immediate attention and, in this case, almost no one else awake.

When I asked reception whether there was anywhere I could get a coffee, I was directed to the breakfast area. Over the next three hours I quietly worked through a couple of coffees while the hotel slowly came to life around me.

Breakfast service officially began at 7 a.m. When I wandered over for another refill after the breakfast team had taken over, I was told coffee was only available for guests purchasing breakfast. That seemed perfectly reasonable, and it may simply have reflected the change from overnight reception to the breakfast team. Either way, I’d already enjoyed a couple of quiet hours with a coffee and got some work done, so I left smiling.

We actually skipped breakfast ourselves. Having stocked up at Sainsbury’s the previous evening, our daughter preferred to eat what we’d already bought before reporting for the tournament. That means I can’t fairly review the breakfast offering itself, although the breakfast dining room was the same bright, modern space we’d spent in for the prior night’s dinner.

I’d asked the previous evening whether a late checkout might be available. The hotel was only able to extend us until midday, which seemed entirely reasonable given Nottingham was filling with families arriving for the Talent Academy Cup. In the end we didn’t need even that. We left our bags with reception after checking out, spent the day at hockey and returned later to collect them before moving into our city-centre accommodation for the rest of the weekend.

The economics of this stay extend a little beyond the room rate alone. The room itself was booked using a 40,000-point IHG Select Free Night Certificate that would otherwise have expired only a few weeks later. While the redemption value wasn’t spectacular, holding out for better value from a certificate until after it expires would have no value at all.

Dinner and drinks were charged to my IHG One Rewards Business Premier card. The restaurant spend generated 2,304 IHG points from the hotel itself and a further 1,749 points from the credit card, for a combined return of 4,053 IHG points.

I wouldn’t necessarily burn 40,000 points here if I had unlimited flexibility and years to use the certificate elsewhere. Faced with an imminent expiry, however, this was exactly the sort of practical redemption that makes sense. It wasn’t an aspirational redemption, but it was an effective one. An expiring certificate covered a night we genuinely needed, and the on-property spend still earned back a useful number of IHG points.

I would.

Holiday Inn Nottingham isn’t trying to compete with boutique hotels or luxury properties. Instead, it provides comfortable accommodation, straightforward dining, good parking and a practical location that works well for anyone arriving by car. For our trip, that was ideal. It allowed us to arrive the night before, avoid an anxious early morning journey and start an important weekend feeling relaxed rather than rushed.

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